Erling Haaland scored his 91st goal in his 100th appearance for Manchester City as the champions kicked off their English Premier League title defence with a 2-0 away win over Chelsea. The big Norwegian, fed by Bernardo Silva, forced his way between Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana and finished neatly past Robert Sanchez in the 18th minute. Former Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic made sure of victory for the visitors six minutes from time, racing through a disorganised Chelsea midfield and thumping the ball into Sanchez’s net.
“Three points, a perfect start,” Haaland told Sky Sports. More Football “I knew exactly what to do, I think it was a really good goal. I remember last year he made a really good save against me, it had been irritating me for a long time so, yeah, it was a perfect goal.
” Chelsea, in their first Premier League outing under new manager Enzo Maresca, fashioned some hopeful attacking moves through Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and recent signing Pedro Neto but were largely outclassed by their more composed visitors. Maresca said: “We were against the champions today. We will continue and win games.
They are a master of keeping hold of the ball. The performance was there and that is the main thing.” Meanwhile, Maresca added to speculation about Raheem Sterling’s Chelsea future when he left the winger out of Sunday’s squad, saying some players might have to move on.
“I want Raheem Sterling but I want all the 30 players that we have, but ther.